From Maggie Hamand
As someone with a first degree in biochemistry and an MA in theology, I am always fascinated by debates about religion and science. I was dismayed, however, to read that belief in God is equated with belief in “supernatural beings” (6 March, p 3). In Christian theology God is not seen as an object of our consciousness, and therefore cannot be described as a “being” or as a “thing”. God is held to be both beyond being (transcendent) and being itself (immanent). As far as I am aware Judaism, Islam, and indeed Buddhism and Hinduism have similar doctrines.
It is human to constantly reify things which are abstract – as scientists do when talking about particles and black holes – or which are divine: but this should be resisted if we are to truly understand things.
London, UK
